1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display control technique of objects to be displayed on an interface screen, such as characters and icons.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is known a technique that uses a printer driver or the like to remotely execute predetermined image processing in an image processing apparatus from an external device such as a PC (refer to, e.g., Jpn. Pat. Appln. Laid-Open Publications Nos. 2004-312711, 2004-264540, 2003-289419, 2000-349952).
However, in the above technique, the interface screen of the printer driver displayed on the external device and that of the image processing apparatus have no commonality with each other and entirely differ from each other in terms of design or information classification scheme.
As describe above, operation procedures entirely differ between the image processing apparatus and external device (printer driver, etc.) even in the case where the same operation is performed. Therefore, a user needs to learn two types of operation procedures, i.e., the operation procedure on the image processing apparatus and that on the external device, adversely affecting operability and workability.
Further, the operation procedure in image processing apparatuses of recent years becomes complicated, which may require substantial time to perform its operation. However, since an image processing apparatus installed in an office or the like is shared by a plurality of users in general, it is not preferable that one user occupies the image processing apparatus. Thus, in the case where a given user is performing a complicated setting operation for some sort of image processing, if there is another user who has an urgent need to use the image processing apparatus, the user who is performing the setting operation temporarily cancels the setting content, allows the another user to use the image processing apparatus for his or her urgent task, and then restarts the same setting operation once again. Such a situation is not preferable in terms of working efficiency.